Monday, March 23, 2015

After many months of litigation, Marvin Gaye's family finally won a verdict in their favor, a whopping 7.4 million dollars. Thicke and Pharrell Williams repeatedly denied that the two songs, "blurred lines" and "got to give it up" closely resembled one another.

Additionally, Thicke denied having written the song during trial, although he had been repeatedly credited for the success of the song that sold millions of copies worldwide. Attorneys for Thicke and Williams argued that the jury's verdict significantly hindered an artist's creativity in producing music.

Gaye's family however was relieved to know that they had finally been vindicated for their fathers' creative music. The family claimed that during attempted settlement and subsequent filing of the lawsuit, that Thicke had repeatedly lied to the family and was not cooperative during the entire duration.

Hopefully future artists embrace the meaning behind the jury's verdict and tread carefully in using familiar beats in new songs. Although Williams lost this lawsuit, many doubt that his successful career will be tainted, particularly since his next hit, "Happy," has obviously proved rewarding.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

When you walk
into a store today, it is almost impossible not to find a celebrity-endorsed
product. This presents a challenge for these brands when their endorser
suddenly shows up on ‘Page 6’ for all the wrong reasons: drugs, domestic
violence, even an act of infidelity. This causes brands to enter recall mode
and attempt to distance themselves from the endorser by terminating the
contract, cancel the advertising, or pulling the endorsed product from the
shelves.

Instead of leaving brands in
the dust to take this costly and unanticipated expense, Lexington Insurance
(the American International Group member offering the insurance) has introduced
Celebrity Product RecallResponse, a new insurance product that protects
customers when their celebrity endorser experiences a small or a worldwide “public
fall from grace, scandal, or unexpected death”.[1]

“Celebrity Product
RecallResponse covers certain costs incurred by companies to recall products
bearing a celebrity endorser’s name and image”.[2]
These costs include expenses associated with disposing of products and
packaging, paying overtime wages to employees, and utilizing other personnel.
The coverage also reimburses for the removal of marketing and advertising
materials.

The so-called “scandal insurance”
is triggered by significant news media coverage of an endorser’s distasteful
conduct that results in (or has a high chance of resulting in) a negative
public outlook on the individual and a significant adverse impact on a
company’s product. For example, if a certain actress endorsing a fashion brand enters
rehab for the fifth time, the policy would be triggered. This would result in the removal of all the
promotional and marketing materials for that product (i.e. billboards, TV
commercials, etc.) associated with that actress.

Coverage is designed to
provide protection for companies of many sizes. It is available with standalone
policy limits up to $5 million or by endorsement with limits up to $1 million.

All products endorsed by a certain
Lohan or Cyrus are sighing a breath of relief.